Amhara Ethnic Group Essay

1.1 Brief Ethnography of the Amhara Ethnic Group

The Amhara ethnic group is one of more than eighty ethnic groups in Ethiopia which is second in population size next to the Oromo ethnic group. It is an ethnic group which largely inhabits the northern and central highlands of Ethiopia, particularly in Amhara National Regional State. The regional state has a total area of 170,752 square km and made up of 11 administrative zones which are divided into a total of 113 woredas and 3,216 kebeles. According to the 2007 national census, they numbered 17,221,976 of which 8,641,580 and 8,580,396 were male and female respectively. (CSA, 1997)
The Amhara speak Amharic as their mother-tongue which belongs to the Semitic branch of Afro-Asiatic family and the majority of them are orthodox

He considers taboo as restrictions that are different from religious or ethical prohibitions, which are not based upon any celestial statute, but rather might be said to force themselves on their own account (Freud, 1999: 2). He came up with the most original explanation for the apparently irrational nature of taboo, asserting that they are shaped by emotional ambivalence and as a consequence represent forbidden actions in the society.
On the other hand Wardhaugh, the Canadian sociologist, explains that “taboo is one way in which a society utter its disapproval of certain types of behavior supposed to be destructive to its members, either for spiritual reasons or because such behavior is held to infringe a moral code” (1986:230). Ashley Montagu an anthropologist by profession holds analogous point of view and confirm that taboo words are indeed social constructions which can be witnessed by the existence of taboo language in every culture (Montagu, 1967:55). He asserts the use of taboo words as “a culturally adapted response to the experience of certain circumstances” (Ibid: